What Makes You Right?

Merlin Carothers, author of the book Prison to Praise, had firsthand experience of what it is like to be declared righteous. During World War II, he joined the army. Anxious to get into some action, Carothers went AWOL but was caught and sentenced to five years in prison. Instead of sending him to prison, the judge told him he could serve his term by staying in the army for five years. The judge told him if he left the army before the five years ended, he would have to spend the rest of his term in prison. Carothers was released from the army before the five-year term had passed, so he returned to the prosecutor’s office to find out where he would be spending the remainder of his sentence. To his surprise and delight, Carothers was told that he had received a full pardon from President Truman. The prosecutor explained: “That means your record is completely clear. Just as if you had never gotten involved with the law.”

Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Psalm 14:1–3 ESV

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

In Volume 1, Chapter 3 of Christian Dogmatics, Lutheran theologian Francis Pieper wrote,

Christian Dogmatics Chapter 3: The Number of Religions in the World

How many essentially different religions are there in the world? The preceding chapter has already shown that there are not a thousand (Meyer, Grosses Konversationslexikon, 6th ed., XVI, 784), not even four, but only two essentially different religions: the religion of the Law, that is, the endeavor to reconcile God through man’s own works, and the religion of the Gospel, that is, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, belief wrought through the Gospel by the Holy Ghost that we have a gracious God through the reconciliation already effected by Christ, and not because of our own works (χωρὶς ἔργων νόμου).

The Reformation was all about a simple question: How shall a sinful, unrighteous man be reconciled to a holy, righteous God?

The Annotated Luther, Volume 1: The Roots of Reform The History of the 95 Theses

By the late Middle Ages, indulgences had become a central part of piety for many people in the Western church. It was also a useful means of financial support for a cash-strapped papacy, so that indulgence preaching was labeled a sacrum negotium (holy business). When Leo X (1475–1521) proclaimed a plenary “Peter’s Indulgence” in 1515, the stated reason was to raise money to rebuild the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Rome—the Renaissance result of which may still be seen today. It is true that half of the money raised was to go to the Augsburg banking family, the Fuggers, in order to pay a debt owed by the archbishop of Mainz, Albrecht von Brandenburg (1490–1545), who had used the loan to pay Rome for the right to hold multiple sees (including archbishop of Magdeburg and administrator of the diocese of Halberstadt) upon his accession to the see in Mainz. But this would have been considered serving the same religious purpose, namely, to support the building of St. Peter’s, and thus should not be construed as the unscrupulous act of a secularized religious leader who had no conscience and was only interested in servicing a debt. The religious benefits attached to the indulgence were surely also part of Albrecht’s concern. In any case, at the time of writing the 95 Theses, Luther knew nothing of such backroom dealings. His concerns as expressed in the 95 Theses and his letter to Albrecht were purely theological and pastoral.

Dr. Luther, in 1517, was still a thoroughly Augustinian Catholic priest. He sought, neither then nor later, in fact, to be separated from the Church of Rome, for such had been his home all of his life. He believed that the Church under the pastoral care of the Bishop of Rome was “a pillar and buttress of the truth.”

What Luther feared on that autumn day of All Saints’ Eve was not witches, warlocks, or ghouls, it was the idea, presented under the preaching of indulgences, that sinners could obtain forgiveness of sins apart from faith in Jesus Christ, as was implied by indulgence preachers such as Dr. Johann Tetzel.

That the Bible declares no substitutionary justification apart from Christ is clear, for in Ezekiel 14:12-14, it is written,

Ezekiel 14:12–14 (ESV)

And the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God.

Lest we become emboldened to say that “there is a righteousness that I can produce within myself, as did these three, Noah, Daniel, and Job,” the Word of God yet speaks in our Epistle text today, in Romans 3:19-20,

Romans 3:19–20 ESV

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

The Law showed Noah, Daniel, and Job, just like it tells you and me, what they did wrong. Just like you, me, and Dr. Luther, they were dependent upon the mercies of God for any way of righteousness that would deliver them from the wrath of God. Luther had tried everything that he knew as a 16th Century Catholic priest, but finally was led by the Word of God and the teaching of the historic creeds to look in another direction, a direction apart from the Law and outside of himself:

Romans 3:21–26 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

It was on this basis that we confess the importance of Justification:

The Book of Concord (Article IV: Concerning Justification)

[1] Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God through our merit, work, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God out of grace for Christ’s sake through faith [2] when we believe that Christ has suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. [3] For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness in his sight, as St. Paul says in Romans 3[:21–26*] and 4[:5*].

God is faithful; the world is fickle. What is promoted today can be rejected tomorrow, just ask Dave Chappelle. For the world sees itself as always improving, always progressing, and the road looks promising, wide and forgiving - but it leads to destruction because it is not the Way of the Lord.

Jesus Christ is the Way , the Truth, and the Life. We say this, not as a boast, but because He has proven it by the His glorious resurrection and by the Church which He has built upon the declaration - “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” No one else has His credentials, no one else can present the evidence that He presents. No one else has crushed the serpent’s head. No one else has conquered sin, death, and the grave - only Jesus.

Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Eucharist give to us what God has promised in His Son. They are gifts of God; they cannot be replaced or ignored. They belong to the Church alone, the gift given to her by her Husband, Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Dowry which the Groom gives to His Bride, sealing us to Him until He returns in His fulness, as it is written:

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

All this is part of our lives because Jesus shed His pure, sacred blood for us. The Law could not save, the world cannot save, but:

“I know it was the blood, I know it was the blood, I know it was the blood, for me. One day when I was lost, He died upon the cross. I know it was the blood for me.”

“Christ died to save sinners” is the message that we bring to the world, the only message that matters. As long as we hold fast to this, here we stand, but when we let go of this message, we are lost no matter where we stand.

So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

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